Remote Work Security Assessment

The new world of remote work has created both increased security vulnerabilities and increased threats from bad actors. According to William Altman, Senior Analyst at the Global Cyber Center of NYC, “Organizations of all kinds are facing an uptick in email-based threats, endpoint-security gaps, and other problems as a result of the sudden switch to a fully remote workforce.”1 Bitdefender research reports 86% of information security professionals admitted that attacks were on the rise during the COVID-19 pandemic, with phishing and whaling recording the highest spikes in activity.

Organizations had not planned to move their office workforces to remote working, and IT departments were unprepared for transitioning a workforce while still ensuring security and compliance. Nevertheless, IT teams had to enable nearly all their
office staff to work remotely, sometimes with only a few days’ notice and little to no planning time. As a result, this quick shift happened in emergency mode.

Under pressure to keep organizations functioning, many made operational compromises. Hard decisions were faced, and security measures were relaxed to enable employees to work remotely. Simultaneously, bad actors have dramatically increased activity. The rates of increase for the most common cybersecurity risks increased by over 30% during the first part of 2020.